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Meet the Challengers: Florian Bergér

Florian Bergér is currently in his third season of the Challenger Class in the Red Bull Air Race World Championship. He burst on the scene in 2015 and instantly started turning heads.

In his first race he finished fourth, missing out on a podium finish by just 0.542s. He flew cleanly in his first season, learning his trade and pushing himself at every race. He was rewarded at the penultimate race of 2015 when he finished third in Fort Worth, claiming his first podium.

2016 was to be Bergér's year. He finished the season opener in third and then in his second race took the first win of his career. From then on he went from strength to strength taking the title in only his second year. Aside from taking the title, one of Bergér's 2016 highlights was the race in Lausitz where he took the second win of his career. "To win in Germany, in a home race, it's hard to describe – really nice," he said.

This season Bergér has started exactly where he left off. He's only competed in three races so far this season, but he's sitting on top of the standings and has claimed two race wins and a second place finish. His last race was in Budapest and he won by more than 3.5s, showing how strong he is in the Challenger Class. After his last win he said: "I'm so happy and it's such an amazing feeling. I have no words for it, it's really cool. I'm hoping for more podiums and trophies for this season."

And there's not many betting that he won't collect more podiums as he aims to retain his title. But his ultimate goal is to be in the Master Class. "I would love to be in the Master Class some day, but right now I'm concentrating on being more stable and more consistent this year. We will see what happens in the future," he concluded.